The Country Life

Being a transplant from the city to the country has many battles and life is not always as pleasant and peaceful as I may make it out to be. One of the hardest situations that I have not been able to grow acustom to is the intense weather conditions that we are always being over loaded with.

One of the first months that I had moved out here, I recall driving home into the country during a very intense lightning show. I remember how hard the rain was beating down on the highway and every time I saw the lightning crack through the sky down to the ground and hear the beating of the thunder I wanted to crawl under my steering wheel in fetal position and rock myself back and forth. Out here nothing is in the way between you and the thunderstorm, tornado, blizzard, whatever. There's no buildings to block the wind gusts or houses upon houses all stacked up in a line like a mighty fortress against the weather conditions to make you feel safe. In the country you are exposed and vulnerable to whatever mother nature has in store for you and you better make yourself prepared. 

City people cannot seem to make this connection no matter how much I try to explain to them how dangerous and frightening it can be. I remember one time it was snowing sideways and I couldn't get out of my driveway due to a 3 foot drift and my friend from Ft.Wayne had said, "Well, can you try and make it..it's not that bad here" 

 Just when you feel as though you have all of your game plans in order for every scenario, then something crazy like a "Gustnado" appears out of nowhere and rips off a few roofs and levels a few buildings here and there. This last summer we had a "Derecho" or "Land Hurricane" that also came out of nowhere which twisted and threw two Oak Trees that we had on our property that were well over a hundred years old and split apart a third tree. 

I remember the first year I had lived here I came home one day to a smoking hundred year old Oak Tree that lightning had stuck. I'll never forget the weird sensation that the ground gave my feet. It was as if there was still electricity flowing through it. I wouldn't believe how powerful it was to pierce a tree and pull pieces off that were ten feet in length and throw them across the road.

So why do we live here? Why do we put up with all of the crazy weather out here in the country? Because we'd rather live nowhere else. The country life makes up for it all!

Working a Routine

This Saturday morning I kicked off the first of what will become, "Pancake Saturday"!!! The girls and I already have, "Friday Night Movie Night" when the girls and I grab our blankets and pillows and crash out in the living room and watch a movie! Todd gets to have , "Boy Night" which is just him and our dog (girl dog, but we'll let him have it), gets to watch some sort of boring history channel documentary that I usually protest to. So, everybody is happy! (except maybe my back...sleeping on the couch..not so happy).
Friday night is then followed by, "Sleep in Saturday" which is a favorite for Tayla, poor thing. I don't remember having to get up as early as 6:45 in the 1st grade...??
So this would be the Myers Homestead family traditions! Having a routine is good for kids and in this crazy world doesn't seem to exist that often or if it does not that many people talk about it. To me, it's important that my girls know that they have something to always look forward to. I know movies and pancakes don't sound very exciting but to a 4 and 7 year old, it is. They get to have something that no matter what, is always there. I've threatened "movie night" a few times when they were fighting but decided that it wasn't a good thing to use as punishment by taking it away so I've stopped doing it.
What made me think of having a simple, fun routine in our lives was when I noticed that a lot of my parent friends had routines of their own, only these routines didn't involve their children. Girls Night Out, Date Night, Quarterly Vacation Get-a-ways, Work, Drinking, I could go on forever. There's not too many mothers out there that have a fun routine with their children, in fact, it seems as if their routines are to get away from them.
I know life is hard especially when you are working 40 plus hours a week and have children. Then there are the single moms, I can't even imagine. But know that your children don't see any of this. So even if your routine is, "Taco Tuesday" or reading a goodnight story to them every night, it's something for them to look forward to. It's you removing yourself from everything and giving them something that they love, just for them.

Craziness!

Spring is just around the corner!!! I have my seed catalogs coming in one by one which is one of the first signs. The second sign would be the 6 little baby Rhode Island Reds that we have in a temporary home inside our garage! My husband surprised me and the girls one day while we were out and about looking at "Chicken things" and went ahead and purchased these lovelies!! They are about the cutest little things I've ever seen!! The girls love playing with them now, but I have a feeling that once they become 10 times the size that they are now, that may change a bit. Who knows..but they are cute!!!
I can't wait until things warm up a bit and we can place them in their coop outside so we can once again have our garage back to park in! I didn't know that 6 small things would close down our garage because of the constant warm temperature that they need. We can't freeze them out by opening up the garage door over and over again. It will all be worth it come summer when we (hopefully) get our first eggs!! How exciting!! We should receive one egg per chick, per day.
It's going to be a busy summer adding the chicks into my daily routine which includes: Taking care of the girls, being a swimming pool cleaner, gardener, mower, cooker, cleaner, etc., etc..
I told myself last summer that when winter hit I would take advantage of the down time, by relaxing...well..that happened somewhat, but I ended up baking like a crazy lady September thru December. Then took a month hiatus which is when I organized like a mad woman, now I am trying to find a happy medium by working a little of both into my daily routine.
I remember when there was a time in my life, while being a FT working mother and wife, that a good, home cooked meal consisted of  a bag of frozen crap or a box of crap that I'd add stuff to and VOILA...I called that cooking and thought nothing wrong with it at all. Coincidentally, that was when my girls ate more. That's because crap is more exciting to a child then flavorful, colorful REAL food. My girls will get the hint once they realize that french fries will be cut fresh, tossed in Olive oil and baked with sea salt instead of the frozen kind that we used to deep fry in our mini fryer. Those were the crazy days when I didn't think that food mattered. I wish I could reverse time and go back and start all over. I guess what matters is that we are on the right track now and are eating healthy.
I'm sure there's a lot of Grandma's, Aunts, etc. who think I'm crazy but all I'm really doing is eating old school. I'm going back in time before things were prepackaged, loaded with MSG, when food was really food. I'm cooking as if we were living on an old fashioned farm, with fresh ingredient's, raw cow's milk, fresh eggs, fresh veggies, lard, freshly butchered meats. Crazy I know, but it feels so right! :)

Eat What is Real

The Myers Family Homestead have been going through several major changes in our food. After being introduced to the term, "Raw Food" from a friend of mine, and researching exactly what it mean, both Todd and I have decided to move forward with our healthy food plan. Slowly over the past year we've reached a half way point in doing so without really knowing it. We ditched all of the frozen chicken nuggets, corn dogs, pre made, processed crap and replaced with low fat food items such as turkey bacon, turkey dogs, ground chicken, etc.
Well, this wasn't good enough for me. Yes, we were watching our calories and fat but we were not looking at what we were putting in our body, what I was giving to  my children. Nitrates, MSG, a hundred ingredients I had no clue what they were, Aspartame, the list is endless. Here I thought I was giving my family healthy meals by cooking low-fat, low calorie but instead I was feeding them things I've never even heard of.
We needed change.
As of the beginning of 2013 here are some food changes that have been going on in our home:
Milk: We went from store bought, pasteurized skim milk to purchasing a herd share of non-pasteurized raw milk that we pick up from the farm every other week. It's creamier, healthier, has more vitamins and will help prevent osteoporosis which runs on my mom's side of the family. We've also switched from eating "Light n Fit" yogurt to going with the all natural Organic Greek Yogurt sweetened with Cane juice.  I've trying to incorporate Kefir drinks as well to my family but so far we're two for two on the Kefir drinks.
We've also gone from, "I Can't Believe it's Not Butter" to REAL Butter. I've even made some of my own butter which is so easy and so delicious, "I can't believe I've never done it"???


Sugar: We went from using a lot of low fat/low calorie items which in return contained: artificial sweeteners...ahhhh! I've often joked about how I can't keep up with what kind of sugars are "safe". In my life, I've gone from White Sugar- Sweet N Low-The Blue Stuff??- Splenda-Stevia to my current use of the all natural Sugar in the Raw or Natural Cane Sugar. We've also are trying and I have to specify trying because it seems like there's always something that you discover that you are consuming that is bad for you that you hadn't realized yet. But we are swapping out items with concentrated sweeteners and making them ourselves. Examples: Mayonnaise, Salad Dressings, Bread, Pasta Salads, Potato Salads, Hot Chocolate, Chocolate Syrup.
Another thing that we just recently dipped into is raw honey which is fabulous!!! If I get a sweet tooth a spoonful of this will conquer it and it's so good for you! I've read that it can help reduce allergies, help with digestion and gives your body a natural boost.

I feel that we are headed in the right direction as far as improving our eating habits which in return will  improve our overall health. The Myers Homestead are turning into happy, healthy eaters!

Hiatus for Change

Sorry for the long break in writing, but sometimes a break for change is needed. I've been busy focusing on rearranging things in The Myers Homestead in order to be able to function.
My first big step was to de-clutter our house. While I've managed to be three quarters of the way done it has made a huge difference in the flow of things. It took me several months to take everything out of the our walk in closet, utility closet, craft cabinet, book cubicles, and the most dreaded of all...TOY ROOM!!! AHHH
My first project was creating 5 tubs for Holiday stuff. The items that seem to never get organized are now organized!! Two tubs for Christmas Decor, one tub for Autumn/Halloween (that was hard) and one for Spring/Easter decor. I also had a tub for candles, wrapping paper, bows, loose pictures, etc.
I had so many holiday items that I no longer put out but kept holding onto and these items had no real significance to them so why keep them??? Goodbye! TOSSED!!! Autumn was the hardest of all seeing how it's my favorite holiday  and I love LOVE to decorate! What I wanted to let go of was holding onto faux pumpkins and colored faux leaves, etc and perhaps incorporating with real decor. So I purged a lot of my faux items...less is more, right?
The biggest tackle of them all was the toy room. This has been living a life of it's own...it's been growing and growing and growing!!! The girls played with less then half of the stuff in there and the other half they probably didn't even know was there! We had an explosion of puzzle pieces here and a Barbies leg there...a crumpled up plain brown box that they just HAD to have to make into something weeks ago now forgotten and tossed aside. I've tried cleaning and organizing this room but as I said it has a life of its own and it somehow turns into an explosion within days of me cleaning. The girls do their share of straightening it up but let's face it, a 4 and 7 year old just cannot organize. Something had to be done.
I took one toy cubicle shelf in the toy room and the book cubicle shelves and created a checkered patterned toy shelving system with those cute little cloth cubicle bins and placed it on an empty wall in Nora's room. There are a total of 15 cubicle cloth bin slots for toys so I told the girls to pick out what they wanted in the toy room to keep and place it in the cloth bins and everything left over would go away the next day. Well at first, they didn't take me seriously so I had to scare them and took a garbage bag and started throwing away all of the toys on the floor...then they panicked and started really going through the toys and picking out things they wanted to keep. It worked!
So I then took the now empty toy room and turned it into a Library/Craft/Dressh Up Room!! In the closet I have board games and puzzles. I have a cedar chest filled with all sorts of dress up shoes, dresses, hula skirts, you name it that I've collected from garage sales/thrift stores.
 I have 3 large stainless steel shelving units with all of their books on and a long metal vintage table with two bar stools which is their art table! They each have their own sides and art tubs with their names on it. They absolutely love it and have been keeping it somewhat tidy. I think a "Creative Room" is so much more exciting then a toy room, don't you think?

Powerless to Powerful

One week ago the entire area was hit by what is now being called a Category 1 Land Hurricane. For me and my family this took out our power for roughly 5 days in 100 degree temps with no running water. Luckily we only had 2 trees knocked down and a large branch that could account as a tree! Also, a hundred other little things were destroyed on our property but nothing major and we were all untouched by the wrath of this storm...well physically untouched. I think the emotional scarring might last awhile but we'll get over it.
It was a way of weeding out the weak...which we were weeded out and escaped to a hotel!

Airing Out the Laundry

I couldn't help but laugh today as I was outside hanging my laundry up on the line to dry, with the turbines spinning happily in the background along the Highway...I had my A/C on and the pool pump filtering 24/7.
I was so proud of myself for almost drying my clothes outside for an entire month, thinking of how much energy I'd saved and how much lower our electricity bill was going to be. Over the weekend my husband was kind enough to whip me up a batch of some homemade laundry detergent so I've been going to town on the laundry with it to do a comparison. I was feeling so "Green" so "Hands On" and then the weather changed and the bugs grew bigger and bigger...there were Grasshoppers jumping as high as my clothes line...forcing me back to the modern day way of thinking..."screw this"   Ha!